Neal, Stuart

Stuart Neal

My name is Stuart Neal and I am excited to sign on to the Ridgeland Band Staff for the 2015-2016 year! As we begin the year, I would like to take just a moment to clearly outline some philosophies I have concerning my classroom and your students.

The Band Staff commits to ensuring student growth throughout the year. In our program, we seek to outfit each student to successfully grow a musician and a person. We are constantly striving for excellence in all things. The musical excellence comes from paying attention in class, completing assignments, and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!!!!!! The personal growth comes from the high standards that we set for behavior, academics, and relational interactions. We expect our students to be the "cream of the crop". As a staff, we often check on grades and behavior through other teachers and principals.

The Band Staff seeks to empower students to make intelligent choices on their own. Our goal is the shared goal of any parent: we are trying to "work ourselves out of a job". The goal of educating your students is to equip them with all the tools they need so they can go and do. Every day we strive to make independent musicians, thinkers, and doers.

The Band Staff strives to educate your students about their place in the community and world. We understand that a great school, great athletics, and great Arts cannot happen without the help and support of a wonderful community here in the Ridgeland Zone. We encourage our students to remember this fact and give back to the community by performing and serving in whatever capacity they can to continue to uplift this growing and thriving area. We also expose our students to travel, multi-cultural music, historic pieces, and ensemble playing that cause them to consider a world that is bigger than themselves.

Our goal in all things, is to outfit your students to make a positive impact in the world and prepare them for anything that they may face post-high school. In short, we are always reaching